Sledgeback is a

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

-based punk rock band, formed in early 2004, with Hungarian-born American guitarist

Gábor Szakácsi Gábor Szakácsi, also known as Gabi Hun or Gabor Hun, is a Hungarian-born American rock guitarist and vocalist, best known as the frontman of Seattle punk group Sledgeback. He fronted C.A.F.B., one of the most influential Hungarian punk bands ...

(Gabi Hun) as the frontman. Former member of the long-standing influential Hungarian punk rock outfit

C.A.F.B. C.A.F.B. is a Hungarian alternative rock band from Budapest, originally formed in 1990 with Gábor Szakácsi and Mihaly Szita. The band has been through several line-up changes between 2004 and 2014 but officially never broke up. After many short ...

, Gabi Hun moved to Seattle not knowing a word of English, and soon after formed Sledgeback.

History

Beginning 2004–2007

Gaining a large following early in their career, Sledgeback have toured both locally, and internationally, playing in 2005's

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

and even opening for the likes of Flogging Molly to sold-out crowds. With their first album release ''People's Choice'' through Sliver Records, Sledgeback gained notoriety through bi coastal radio play and crowd pleasing shows due in large part to high intensity performances, while boasting powerfully raw, life inspired lyrics. The band claims on its official website that, Sledgeback started as an attempt of the

to continue his previous project

which is undoubtedly the biggest influence of group, dates back to 1990. The previous accomplishments of Hun with C.A.F.B. helped build a loyal fanbase for Sledgeback around Hungary, and gained attention in various European countries following the release of their second album by Rebellion Records (Holland) in 2007. After months of negotiation to alleviate the agreement between the band and Sliver Records, regarding the release of the disputed second album, ''Perception Becomes Reality'' to Rebellion records, Sledgeback departed the label. Rebellion signed Sledgeback and placed one of the album's song "Wonderland" to the ''We are the Underground'' compilation in addition to the release of ''Perception Becomes Reality''. The work was published as compact disc (CD) and vinyl (12") format.

Intermission 2008

Due to several member changes Sledgeback remained relatively silent throughout 2008 with only a handful of Seattle area performances, supporting bands such as

The Accüsed The Accüsed is an American crossover thrash band from Seattle founded in 1981. The band was a progenitor of the crossover style that bridged the gap between thrashcore and thrash metal, later influencing grindcore and some crust punk bands; as ...

and the Angry Samoans.

Revival 2009–2010

In 2009, former

Himsa Himsa was an American heavy metal band from Seattle, Washington. Formed in 1998, their band name is from the Sanskrit word himsa, which means "harm" or "violence". The group released four full-length studio albums, two EPs and one DVD before ...

drummer Tim Mullen joined Sledgeback. After

Parker Lundgren Parker Lundgren (born December 28, 1986) is an American guitarist, best known for being in the progressive metal band Queensrÿche, which he joined in 2009 until 2021. Career Lundgren was born in a musical family to Julie Clouse and Scott Lun ...

guitarist left to play for Queensrÿche,the group continued working on their third album, ''Bite the Bullet'', as a trio. It released by Sliver Records in November 2010 following a 12 track split cd (compact disc) ''Reality Bites'' with Welsh punk veterans Foreign Legion. One of the most popular songs of the band ("Pants Off") from their debut album, was used in the soundtrack of the German action-comedy DVD feature ''OTE'' by Derik Rentrop in 2010.

2011 and beyond

Sledgeback appeared on a (vinyl) 7" compilation titled ''Shut the F*** Up and Listen Vol. IV'' with a sixty seconds long track, "Oi generation". Released by PIG Records, the disc contains artists including

GG Allin Kevin Michael "GG" Allin (born Jesus Christ Allin; August 29, 1956 – June 28, 1993) was an American punk rock musician who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. Allin was best known for his controversial live performances ...

and MDC. Following another appearance with a song on the ''Zombie Pit'' compilation in 2012, the band released a three-way split ''3 of a Kind'' with Los Angeles punk rockers

The Generators The Generators are a punk rock band formed in 1997 in Los Angeles, created as a response to the breakup of the 90s punk rock group Schleprock. The original lineup was composed of Doug Kane on vocals, Mike Snow and Eric Ortega (Sir Doosky) on gu ...

and

The album also served as retrospective take on the band's deeper millennial roots through C.A.F.B., which was credited as the fundamental starting point of Sledgeback, upon Hun's official departure following their 2004 album. In May 2012, New Music Distribution and the German SN-Punx record label issued the first ever retrospective compilation of Sledgeback with 16 songs. The album, ''7 Years Like a Broken Record'' covered the band's career between 2004 and 2011, including re-mastered and re-recorded versions of some of their previously released songs. Trotter left Sledgeback in mid 2013. He was replaced by Justin McCawley who is also a member of the Seattle punk group The Insurgence.

Style and sound

The sound of Sledgeback originates in the Hungarian front man's vocal style that defines the whole structure of the group with lyrics that often describe painful moments of life taken from Hun's personal experiences. Sledgeback may sound close to its influences but still is easily recognizable, creating a unique mixture of the so-called street punk and

Oi! Oi! is a subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads, and other disaffected working-class youth. The movement was p ...

styles with the timeless sound of 1990s west coast punk, and successfully incorporating the vocals of Gábor Szakácsi that sets them aside from other similar bands. Possibly because of the frontman's Central European heritage, Sledgeback's musical style is comparable with bands like the German

Böhse Onkelz Böhse Onkelz (), sensational spelling of ''böse Onkel'' (German for "evil uncles") is a German rock band formed in Frankfurt in 1980. The band reunited in 2014. Despite mass-media criticism concerning their past as skinheads, several of their ...

The Freeze ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

as well as Pegboy and Gábor Szakácsi's previous group from Hungary,

Roots

The roots of Sledgeback can be traced back to Gábor Szakácsi's previous group, C.A.F.B. which was an important part of the 1990s Hungarian punk and alternative music revival. (As it mentioned in the most comprehensive Hungarian music encyclopedia Hun left Hungary and with that his band C.A.F.B. to start a new life in Seattle where he later formed Sledgeback. The musical structure of both bands are the same, with the driving stripped down raw guitar chords. The only difference between the two groups is the keyboard, which was also an essential element of C.A.F.B. in the latter albums, particularly their most successful work, '' Zanza'', which launched the band into the Hungarian mainstream in 1997.

Current members

(Gabor Hun) – vocals, guitar * Tim Mullen – drums * Justin McCawley – bass

Discography

* '' People's Choice'' (2004) * ''

Perception Becomes Reality ''Perception Becomes Reality'' is Sledgeback's second full-length album. The sound of the album is general punk rock. Originally released in 2006 by Sliver records in the United States, the Dutch label Rebellion Records released a European versi ...

'' (2006) * ''Reality Bites'' – split with Foreign Legion (2010) * ''

Bite the bullet To "bite the bullet" is to “accept the inevitable impending hardship and endure the resulting pain with fortitude”.

'' (2010) * ''3 of a Kind'' – split with

and

(2012) * ''7 Years Like a Broken Record'' (2012) * '' Land of the Freak'' (2014) * '' 36206'' (2016)

Compilations

Punks and Pints – Seattle's Best Punk
January 1, 2004
Music Is Stupid. We Like Noise!
January 1, 2005
Punks and Pints – Seattle's Best Punk – Vol. 2
January 1, 2006
We Are the Underground 2007 (Rebellion records)
2007 * Punks and Pints Vol. 3 (2007) * Shut the F*** Up and Listen (Vol. IV) March 2011 (PIG Records) *Zombie Pit (2011) *Oi the Print No. 6 (2012)

Videos

* Sledgeanger – 2004 * Werewolf Love – 2006 * Don't Wanna Know – 2008 * No Feelings – 2014 * Hey Ho – 2011 * Insane – 2014 * I am – 2014 * New World Order – 2014 * Frustration – 2014

Movie

* ''OTE'' (German)

References

External links

Official Sledgeback SiteOfficial Sledgeback @MySpace.comListen to Sledgeback on Last.fmOfficial C.A.F.B SiteSledgeback @CDBaby.comSledgeback @Tower RecordsSliver Records
{{Authority control Alternative rock groups from Washington (state) Musical groups established in 2004 Musical groups from Seattle American musical trios Punk rock groups from Washington (state) Street punk groups Oi! groups 2004 establishments in Washington (state)